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Pakistan plan to repeat the Jonty Rhodes exercise frequently in the future if episode one involving the former South African star yields positive results, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Saturday.

“We would love to have Rhodes coming to Pakistan at regular intervals to help us out in the fielding department,” said Abbas Zaidi, Director of Board Operations, while talking to this correspondent. “But that would depend largely on Rhodes’s availability.”

Rhodes, counted among the world’s best fielders during his international career, is scheduled to come to Pakistan for a two-week coaching stint next month. He was hired by the PCB to help out the Pakistani cricketers after the home team’s awful display in the field in a 1-4 drubbing at the hands of India in the one-day series earlier this year. Rhodes is also supposed to help train youngsters during his short stay in Pakistan.

Zaidi said that Rhodes has not just been hired because he was a top class fielder but also because he is a cricket icon and his presence would be inspirational for young Pakistani cricketers.

“We believe Rhodes would be an inspiration for the younger generation of our cricketers.”

Zaidi said that he believes Rhodes would have the sort of influence on the youngsters that can make them go that extra mile. “We are not expecting Rhodes to do wonders with the senior team players,” he said candidly. “But expectations are high when we talk about the under-18 players. They are the ones who have that enormous capacity to learn and who could be a better fielding coach for them than Rhodes.”

Zaidi said that the PCB would certainly consider repeating the fielding coach experiment frequently in the future if Rhodes’s visit brings any significant changes. And the former South African Test player would remain as Pakistan’s first choice.

But all of that depends on whether Rhodes would be willing to make any long term commitments. “We are aware that he (Rhodes) has hectic commitments but let’s see,” said Zaidi. He made it clear though that the PCB has no plans to have a full-time fielding coach based in Pakistan.

Moving to another subject, Zaidi said that the PCB has intensified its efforts to upgrade cricketing facilities in several parts of the country.

He said that work would begin later this summer to raise the capacities of the Gaddafi and National Stadium. He said that the Karachi stadium’s capacity would increased to somewhere between 45 to 50,000.

Zaidi said that efforts are on to help Hyderabad develop a couple of decent hotels so that international cricket can return to Sindh’s second largest city.

“The city should have at least a good three-star hotel for us to include it in the list of international venues,” he said.

Zaidi added that the Hyderabad city government officials have been very enthusiastic in their support to the PCB move. “We are very hopeful that Hyderabad would soon be able to host an international match.”

Source:The News